For the next three days I am going to be at the Highlighting Massage Therapy in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CIM) Research” conference in Seattle!
It unofficially started tonight with about 50-75 people meeting to watch the “DVD viewing party featuring highlights from the 2009 Fascia Congress that took place this past October in Amsterdam (www.fasciacongress.org). It was sponsored by Tom Myers (Anatomy Trains). I unfortunately got there an hour late as I was working all day and then only stayed for less than an hour. I was going to say I was late because I was reading the 25 page paper Bodhi Haraldsson posted on his Facebook page in response to my question about what was the MT Foundations Best Practices Symposium. He was meeting for the last two days with that committee. I haven’t gotten a chance to read it. When I do I’ll try to tell you what it is in a paragraph or two! That is one of my issues/concerns with all this focus on research – They talk like researchers – not massage therapists but maybe it’s just me. I haven been in massage school in over 21 years and don’t really keep up on the science of it all. I am more of the feeling type and it seems to work well for me and my clients.
It was already over my head. I haven’t heard the words collalogen, epimysium, proprioception or fascicle in about 21 years. From what I was able to gather is that there is some new science regarding muscle contraction but not sure what it really is all about or how or why I even really need to know about it. I encourage anyone else there to share their comments and perspective on the evenings talk – or are we not supposed to be sharing!
I’ll talk to Ruth tomorrow for sure.
I ran into an old friend from massage school so hopefully we can sit together and talk about what we don’t remember from massage school! (or maybe she has and can fill me in!)
I was able to leave some brochures from Heal-wa.org there for the local WA State Massage Therapists. We have this great resource here in WA where we can access some of the research databases and other resources online as a part of our licensing fees. I’ll be writing much more about that too on my other site www.wa-massage-therapy.com/ce as I learn more how to use it and what it can be used for. I did meet with Valarie Lawrence last week who is the manager of it all. It is such an amazing resource!
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Julie,
Just as there is a particular language and vocabulary in physiology so there is a particular language and vocabulary in research methodology and designs. Just as you have learned the basics in anatomy and physiology in massage school, you can learn the ‘anatomy’ of research.
As for the presentations, I would say that the 3 presentations were the pick of the talks from the Amsterdam Fascia Congress. It was great to review these – I went to Amsterdam but you still pick up new information in the presentations with each viewing.
Laura Christman provided a great summary of the three presentations for those not familiar with the more technical langauge. I highly recommmended it. You can pick it up from the Anatomy Trains/Kinesis stand.
The presntation that had the most impact for me was Jaap Ver Der Wal’s presentation that ligaments are in series to the muscles, not in parallel as we have been led to believe by the anatomist and the anatomical artist. Ligaments are very rare in the body. What we ‘see’ in the anatomy text books are tissues stripped away until the aponeurosis resembles a ligament.
Yes but frankly -how will it help my practice? I don’t have a clue really about any of the info I have heard. I think there is something really missing in the communication and language of research. It is like a secret society where you have to learn all this stuff just to even have a clue what people are talking about. I for one hardly remember any anatomy after 21 years. I feel what I do.
Researchers want to look impressive and they have what Dan Heath calls “The curse of knowledge” – you forget how it was when you didn’t know about something.
One of my reasons for attending this conference is to see if there is some way to break through this and make research touchable.
Julie